Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bathing a pet, and more particularly to a method using a flexible, low-resilient or non-resilient squeeze container of liquid bathing product having a gripping portion and a centered, upward-directed nozzle to dispense the liquid bathing product in an upward direction.
Related Art
Prior art devices have been used for containing liquid bathing products and dispensing liquid bathing product on a pet. Many pets are bathed when standing on their legs in unwilling compliance with the process. A pan or bath can be used to hold water for the pet to stand in, and the liquid bathing product is administered out of a container. However, the containers are either rigid, such as glass or rigid and resilient, such as high density polyethylene, and cannot be used to direct a stream of liquid bathing product upward to dispense directly on the pet's underside and hard to reach places when the pet is standing. Because the containers are often resilient, after an initial squeeze to start a short shampoo stream, the squeeze is relaxed and air is sucked into the container as it returns to its original, un-squeezed shape. In the upright position, the headspace inside the container has air, with the liquid shampoo below it. With the container opening pointing up, the next squeeze pushes out the air, but little shampoo. So to dispense the shampoo, the container is up-ended, the shampoo moves downward to the container opening, and shampoo is applied downward onto the pet's back or neck. The shampoo must then be worked downward and under the pet's underside, which is often the dirtiest part of the pet's body.
Pouches have been disclosed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,005, U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,840, U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,375, U.S. Pat. No. 7,793,618, U.S. 2004/0264816, U.S. 2009/0008103, and U.S. 2009/0208630 all disclose pouches, many modified to provide a spraying effect. None of these pouches, however, provide the present invention's method of dispensing liquid bathing product upward on a pet's underside or hard to reach places, nor do they provide the gripping portion that improves the dispensing of liquid bathing product.
Pouches modified to direct the stream of liquid include U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,587, U.S. Pat. No. 8,061,563, U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,544, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,646. U.S. D527,274 is a patent disclosing a soft squeezable animal shampoo dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,601 discloses a specially designed dog bath system using water from a hand held flexible shower head. U.S. Pat. No. 6,553,943 discloses a pedestal stand dog bath that uses water from a hand held flexible shower head. U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,188 discloses fully enclosed pet bathing apparatus using spray water nozzles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,840, U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,553 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,555,819 disclose a brush for shampooing a dog that has a soap chamber and is connected to a pressured water source to dispense water and shampoo on a dog.
None of the above cited references disclose the present invention.